ears."

Jaqueline fairly screamed at hearing this awful news.

"Hush! be quiet, do!" said the Giant. "You'll bring out my little woman,
and she is not easy to satisfy with explanations when she finds me
conversing with a lady unbeknown to her. The Earthquaker won't do you
any harm; it's only for safe keeping I'll put you with him. Why, he
don't waken, not once in fifty years. He's quite the dormouse. Turns on
his bed now and then, and things upstairs get upset, more or less; but,
as a rule, a child could play with him. Come on!"

Then, taking Jaqueline up on one hand, on which she sat as if on a chair,
he crossed a few ranges of mountains in as many strides. In front was
one tall blue hill, with a flattened peak, and as they drew near the
princess felt a curious kind of wind coming round her and round her. You
have heard of whirlpools in water; well, this was just like a whirlpool
of air. Even the Giant himself could hardly keep his legs against it;
then he tossed Jaqueline up, and the airy whirlpool seized her and
carried her, as if on a tide of water, always round and round in
narrowing circles, till she was sucked down into the hollow hill. Even
as she went, she seemed to remember the hill, as if she had dreamed about
it, and the shape and colour of the country. But presently she sank
softly on to a couch, in a beautifully-lighted rocky hall. All around
her the floor was of white and red marble, but on one side it seemed to
end in black nothing.

Jaqueline, after a few moments, recovered her senses fully, and changing
herself into an eagle, tried to fly up and out. But as soon as she was
in the funnel, the whirlpool of air always sucking down and down, was too
strong for her wings. She was a prisoner in this great gleaming hall,
ending in black nothingness. So she resumed her usual form, and walking
to the edge of the darkness, found that it was not empty air, but
something black, soft, and strong--something living. It had no form or
shape, or none that she could make out; but it pulsed with a heart.
Jaqueline placed her foot on this curious thing, when a voice came, like
thunder heard through a feather-bed:

"Not near time to get up yet!" and then there was a snore, and the great
hall rocked like a ship at sea.

It was the Earthquaker!

The habits of this monstrous animal are very little known, as, of course,
he never comes above ground, or at least very seldom, when he makes
tracks like a d